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Monday, March 7, 2016

Well it had clearly been a while since I've consistently paid attention to my strength training and physical health in general. My excuses are that I had a few major life changes and personal issues start at the end of 2012 and carry on through for a few months or years depending on what we are talking about.

Anyhow things are more stable now so I'm thinking it would be a good idea to track my thoughts on goals here.

One of my long term bad habits has been Dr. Pepper. I love it and starting in high school I have been a regular consumer. I know that soda is not a good thing on many levels but hose 23 flavors just taste so good, especially after or during a stressful day. For the last few weeks I have minimized Dr. Pepper intake with some success. Rather than having one or two a day I've been drinking 1-3 per week (only on the weekends). The theist for the Dr, has been strong at times but now it is pretty manageable.

I was hoping that this simple change would have profound, or at least significant impacts on my total body weight and physique so I tracked my weight for the last few weeks. The results were IMMEDIATE, and short lived (see chart below). In about two weeks I dropped 5 lbs, which was pretty exciting, and then it stayed there for the next 4 weeks it has pretty much stayed in the same place. Hmmmm. You'd think that taking 250 or so calories out of the input stream 5 days of the week would have more of a lasting impact, but the data says otherwise.

I also cut out breakfast (and I am not aware of a compelling reason to not do so) in order to limit caloric intake as well. It appears that I am compensating for the lack of calories that normally would have been coming in through liquid caramel colored sugar water and daily doses of Egg McMuffins (I hate to admit it but that particular fast food breakfast option is pretty tasty to me).

I feel like I have been eating decent amount, meaning not gorging at lunch and dinner, but things aren't moving in the direction I'd like. So I guess I need to get more serious.

I'm easing back into things so I can better manage long term commitments to training and good nutrition. For the last three weeks I've been working on pushup's using this canned routine. It has been satisfying to see some performance increases in tracking my progress and just to feel my muscles doing some work. I'll plan on sticking with this program through March, by which time the garage will be warm enough so as to nullify any 'comfort excuses' for not getting in there and lifting three times a week. I'd like to be able to do 100 pushup's in a single set but I'd also be happy to just be able to bust out a couple sets of 50. So this bit is good and it is keeping me motivated.

I'll start tracking my intake this week just to see where I am and then make adjustments where needed. I also will be doing two tabata workouts on the airdyne to increase caloric expenditure as well.